Combat.mp2
Jump to Combat Strength Modifications 'Basics' A unit can't enter a tile occupied by an enemy unit. Instead, it will ask if you want to attack. Combat usually locks units in battle until one is destroyed. An attack costs the aggressor one move-point. It will also lose moves proportional to damage it suffers. Attacking a tile does not move there — the surviving unit remains where it was. Some combat rules are obvious—units must have nonzero attack strength to attack. Defenders with zero defense lose immediately. There are limits on which units can attack which others. Most Land units can only attack other Land units. Most ships can attack other ships and also Land units. Helicopters and Marines can attack Land and Sea units and can be attacked by most units. Bombers and Missiles can attack any Land or Sea unit. Fighters and Anti-Aircraft Artillery can attack almost all units. Fighters in cities and Bases can usually be attacked by land. Vulnerable ships in port cities suffer defense penalties. Marines and Anti-Aircraft Artillery can attack targets from aboard ship or Helicopter; other Land units must disembark and wait one turn before engaging enemy units (unless the ship first docks inside a native or allied city.) A unit ordered to S'entry remains in place indefinitely and no longer asks for orders each turn. Sentried units can be reactivated manually by selecting them, or activate automatically if an enemy unit comes into view (or if they have finished healing.) Land units can be ordered to '''F'ortify,' which spends a fractional move-point preparing to be attacked. Once fortified they enjoy the same +50% advantage as land units in a city. ''A unit with no remaining moves can't fortify—it needs remaining move-points to start the next turn fortified. Spies in combat. Spies can harm enemy units by doing sabotage. Combat Mechanics Each unit begins combat with one or more hitpoints—''the amount of damage it can sustain. (See Units for stats on each unit type.) Combat consists of successive rounds of violence between the units, which cannot be interrupted and ceases only when a unit dies by reaching zero hitpoints. ''(The exception is most ancient sea units—they can attack for a maximum of 15 combat rounds.) ''In each combat round, only one unit succeeds in wounding the other. The damage a unit inflicts with each blow is called its ''firepower. In each combat round, which unit inflicts damage is based on probability. The attacker's chance is relative to its attack strength, while the defender's chance is relative to its defense strength. For example, on an open field with no other bonuses: Archers have attack strength 3 and attack a Phalanx with defense strength 2. For each round, the Archers will have ⅗''' odds of inflicting damage, while the phalanx has '''⅖ odds. Tired attack. When units attack with less than one full move-point, they are penalized because of tiredness. Only a fraction of their attack strength is used. If they have ⅔''' move-points, they will attack with '''⅔ strength. If they have ⅓''' move-points, they will attack with '''⅓ strength, and so on. There are other factors which affect combat strength. These are summarized in the tables below: Combat Strength Modifications These factors are combined. A city with walls which is built on a hill with a river gives 3×2×1.33 = 8× defense. Fortified units receive no bonus in a city: the effect of being in a city can be considered a "free fortify bonus." When a Land unit's 3x bonus from City Walls is invalid because attacked by Air, Sea, or Howitzers; the defending unit gets the 1.5x city bonus instead. A defending unit never receives both the 1.5x and the 3x bonus simultaneously. The page on [[Bases.mp2|'Base bonuses']] gives a quick reference chart for the bases mentioned above. There is also a reference chart for multiplying [[:en:Defense_bonus_chart.mp2|'Terrain bonuses and base bonuses']]. There are more circumstances that result in adjustments to combat: Promotions General Promotions. Most units have a chance to gain a higher veteran level when they survive combat. This gives veteran bonuses ''to their Combat Strength. Crack V4 units also gain +'⅑''' move-point over standard. With two exceptions, all combat units have the following chances of promotion: Air Promotions. Offensive Air units' promotions are slightly lower, to balance getting more attacks per turn: Marines' promotion rates represent foot soldiers' upgrades to modern weaponry as the game progresses: Marines' veteran bonuses represent improved strength of weapons and special ops forces in the late game: Note: 1. Marines are the last strong foot unit, yet come in the middle of the tech tree. Rather than upgrade to a newer unit, the game represents the need for experience and training for modern special ops. 2. A veteran Marine usually needs 5 battles to become Ranger, where it can defend slightly better than older cheaper faster Alpine Troops. 3. A veteran Marine requires 556 successful battles on average to become Navy SEAL, a rare unit attacking at 89% the strength of a green Howitzer. 4. Thus, the late bonuses serve to slightly mitigate the rapid uselessness that occurs for late-game foot units; and provide a role for multipurpose special ops in modern warfare. Healing Damaged units enter combat at a disadvantage. Damaged Land and Sea units begin each turn with fewer move-points than normal, proportional to (current_hitpoints / total_hitpoints). To regain hitpoints they must spend turns neither moving nor attacking. They regain health each turn according to the table below: * A fortified unit gets +10% for resting unmoved and +10% for being fortified, for a total of +20%. * If you sentry a damaged unit, it will become active and request new orders after its hit points are fully restored. Crew repairs heal ships at every Turn Change regardless of whether the unit has moved. This realistically compensates far distance from cities and lack of fortify-healing. You may produce new V1-Veteran units in a city if it has the appropriate building for its type: | |- | |} | |} *Marines made in a city with Barracks III, Port Facility, AND Airport come out V2. Sun Tzu's War Academy gives an additional +1 veteran level to Land units. Magellan's Expedition gives an additional +1 veteran level to Sea units. Stack-Kill, Stack-Escape; Cities, Forts, Fortresses One unit defends a stack. ' When several units on the same tile are attacked, the unit most capable of defense protects the entire tile. More precisely, for all defenders on the tile which can defend against the attacker, winning chance is calculated to the precision of 0,001%, and the best result is chosen to defend the whole stack. ''If several units have similar results, the cheapest unit defends first. '''Stack-Kill If defenders are inside a City or Base, a lost battle only kills one defending unit. Otherwise, loss of the defender results in Stack-Kill: the loss of every attackable unit on the tile. When a unit transporting other units is in combat, only the attacking unit participates in the engagement, and its passengers are lost if it loses. Stack-Escape Air and Sea units (from Galleon onward) can sometimes survive a Stack-Kill event. When they are present in a stack whose defender has died, each has a separate 50% chance to escape to an adjacent tile if and only if they have more remaining move-points than the attacker. This simulates the ability of Air and Sea units to escape in multiple directions if "faster" than the attacker. More importantly, it realistically allows these units to escort each other. City Population Loss. When a City with no walls loses a unit, one citizen is lost if the attacker was a Land unit*. Once the last defender has fallen you may enter the city and claim it as your own with either a Land unit or Helicopter: ships and aircraft can attack cities but not capture them. A captured City loses 1 population, which destroys a City if it is size 1. Upon capture of a City, each building has a 20% chance of being destroyed, and the victor may steal a technology held by the losing nation. *Knights cause population loss only during city capture, not when killing units inside the city. Forts[[Bases.mp2| and Fortresses]] Building a Fort requires Masonry. A Fortress requires an existing Fort and Construction. To build one of these, move Settlers, Workers, Legions, Engineers, or Proletarians to a tile and give the order. A Fort or Fortress can go anywhere except on a city-center or in water. More information is available by clicking the link for each base type. Other Bases There are two other kinds of military base: Airbases and Naval[[Bases.mp2| Bases]]. More information is available by clicking the link for each base type. Pearl Harbor Effect MP2 and other rulesets have a little documented behaviour: The Pearl Harbor Effect. If attacked in a city, defender firepower for Sea units is set to 1, and firepower of the attacker is doubled. City Defenses There are four buildings which improve the strength of units who are attacked inside the city: | |- | | |} Note: the Great Wall wonder counts as City Walls. Gibraltar Fortress counts as Coastal Defense. Nuclear Combat Nuclear bombs and missiles do not engage in combat like other units — they either strike within range of an SDI Defense and are harmlessly destroyed, or detonate and blast the entire 3x3 area around the attacked tile. Within the blast area all units are destroyed, cities lose half their population, and each land tile has a 50% chance of becoming polluted with Fallout. Fallout raises the chances of Nuclear Winter — terrain begins changing into desert, tundra, and arctic. Workers and Engineers must be given the clean fallout command to dispose of nuclear waste. Ranged Attack Archers. '''Archers may do a Ranged Attack, which shoots arrows at all units on a tile, but for only one round of combat. The units who are successfully hit will lose 1 hitpoint each. The Archer and the units who failed to be hit are unaffected. The Archer loses all move-points after the Ranged Attack. This represents an historical advantage of Archers over mêlée units (hand-combat). Ranged Attack can't be done on cities and fortresses. ⇨ After Gunpowder, all units possess ranged weapons--already factored into their combat stats. Post-gunpowder, there is no case of ranged units vs hand-combat units. Therefore, the Ranged Attack mechanic is only used to represent bow+arrow vs hand weapons. This enables ancient tactics. '''Fanatics. Under Fundamentalism, holy warriors in their homeland have the skills and motivation to arrange ambushes, traps, skirmish assaults, explosions, and similar degrading attacks on occupational invaders. This uses the same mechanic as for Archers, and is represented by 3 combat rounds against all enemy units on the targeted tile. Capturing Units. The following non-military units may be captured, which converts them into your own units: * Workers * Explorer * Caravan, Freight To capture a unit requires a foot soldier or mounted unit whose raw attack value is 3''' or higher. (If less than 3, the units feel a decent chance to defend themselves and will fight for their freedom.) Units on a tile with other units may not be captured. Units in Forts, Fortresses, or Mountains may not be captured. '''In longturn games, an idle nation's unit can't be captured unless inside the capturer's territory. Expelling Units. The following non-military units can be expelled from your nation, which sends them back to their home country: * Settlers, Well-Digger, Workers, Engineers * Diplomat, Spy * Caravan, Freight * Explorer, AWACS Expelling is easier than capturing. To expel a Land unit requires any Land-based military unit except Warriors. Units on Mountains terrain may not be expelled. Units on a tile with other units may not be expelled. Expelling an AWACS requires a Fighter-type unit.